Outside My Window by Linda Ashman - ESSENTIAL

Outside My Window by Linda Ashman, illustrated by Jamey Christoph. PICTURE BOOK. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2018. 9780802854659

BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3) - ESSENTIAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH

The narrator of this book is a young girl of color whose backyard has a big tree and a treehouse. She begins the book, which has rhyming text and a poetic cadance, by asking what is outside other windows. We then are taken on a tour of backyards around the world - busy streets in New York, evergreens and trains in Canada, and so forth. 

There is so many details to look at in this book that will help the reader glean clues about what it is like in different places. I appreciated that the end of the book included a key for all the locations depicted in the story and inspired me close the book, flip it over, and start all over again. The beautiful illustrations carry this book, but the text is fun to read too, especially aloud.  

Jen Wecker, HS English Teacher